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Former Martha Stewart CEO Susan Lyne To Run New York Startup Gil. US Media Discovers European Shop. American online media is starting now to exposé the European shopping club phenomenon which now beginning to get a foothold in the US market.

The shopping concept is growing in importance in the US, whereby in Europe there are dozens of such “Vente-Privée” (private sales, member-only shopping club) services in countries like France, Italy, Spain or Germany. Several US media companies are now simultaneously reporting on the member-only shopping clubs on the web. One example: ABC.com is currently airing an introductory video report, where they explain how internet users can get in on the designer fashion sales. "To score a deal on coveted designer goods you no longer have to battle the crowds, at least not in person. Luxury items without the luxury price tag are just a click away. NBC also recently released an article on the US shopping clubs ("Sample Sales have gone online"). "Traditionally, VIPs rely on word of mouth to gain access to exclusive sale events. "1. Related posts:
Private Shopping Clubs Combine Discounts With Luxury (We Have On. Thanks to a surge of consumers looking for deals in the recessionary economy, private online sample sales, which offer highly discounted merchandise from luxury retailers looking to unload excess inventory, is becoming a fast-growing business.

BuyVIP, a European private online shopping club with more than 3.5 million members, just secured $14.9 million in Series A funding from Kennet Partners, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, 3i Group and Molins Capital. BuyVIP’s American counterparts, Ideeli and Gilt Groupe have also been able to latch on to this expanding market where big-name designers like Calvin Klein, Zac Posen and Givenchy sell last season’s clothes, jewelry and handbags to shoppers at significant markdowns. Now, private shopping club One Kings Lane is trying to be the online sample sale for affordable designer home wares and furnishings. The first 100 TechCrunch readers who sign up here will get a $25 credit towards any purchase.

Shopping 2.0: How to Target a Niche & Create Community - ReadWri. Yesterday our regular podcast show, RWW Live, was on the topic of 'shopping 2.0'.

The show was very illuminating about how the Social Web has changed e-commerce and what tactics leading apps use to target their audience and make money. Indeed many of the lessons can and should be used by other forms of business, such as media and technology startups. We have a two-part post summarizing the highlights from the show.

In this post we discuss why and how shopping 2.0 sites are targeting very niche customers and how that's helped them increase revenues. In part 2 tomorrow, we explain how e-commerce has evolved and what web technologies they're deploying nowadays. We had 4 diverse guests on the podcast: Baynote (collective intelligence platform for online shopping), ModCloth (online retailer of vintage clothing), Retrevo (vertical search for electronics), and Cartfly (social commerce store network). Niche Audience Leads to More Detail About Your Users Know & Support Your Users Download MP3. The Rebirth Of The Sample Sale. Sample sales are an amazing resource for marked down goods for both mainstream and luxury brands.

Online private sample sales are picking up serious speed. Here is how they work: big designers, such as Marc Jacobs or Versace, place excess inventory on a sale site at 50 to 70 percent discounts over a several day period.
Private-Sale Sites Bring Luxury Goods to Bargain Shoppers - NYTi. Kleiner Perkins Joins the Private Sale Rush - Bits Blog - NYTime.

Blue Nile’s Co-Founder Starts a Private-Sale Site - Bits Blog -
Limited-time sales are the latest trend in e-commerce, as Jenna Wortham and I wrote earlier this month.

The newest entrant: Zulily, which early next year will unveil a private-sale site with clothes and gear for children and babies. Zulily’s founders know a thing or two about innovation in e-commerce. Mark Vadon co-founded Blue Nile, the online jewelry retailer that has changed the way diamonds are sold, and is now its executive chairman. Darrell Cavens was most recently senior vice president of marketing and technology at Blue Nile. Zulily is getting started with $4.6 million in financing.
Amazon and Vente-Privee in talks over 2 billion Euro acquisition. [France] US retailing giant Amazon is in deep and secret negotiations with Vente-Privee, the French private sales club which has taken the ecommerce and fashion industries by storm, our sources say.

We asked Xavier Court, marketing director at Vente-Privee, on the record if Amazon had acquired Vente-Privee. His response was “Very flattering but not true at all.” However, our sources say that although the two companies have not yet agreed anything, they are in fact negotiating a price close to 2 billion Euros, or $3.01 billion.
Spring Fashion 2010 - Is Gilt Groupe Good or Bad for Fashion?
The wave rolls in every day at noon Manhattan time. It gathers invisibly, out in the digital netherscape.

A few minutes before the hour, the online retailer Gilt Groupe blasts out an e-mail, and a hush falls over many a workplace, as phone calls are cut short and spreadsheets minimized. Gilt Groupe is in the business of selling high fashion at deep discounts, and as you might deduce from the company’s name, with its Frenchified “e,” it presents itself as an exclusive club. In reality, that’s just artifice—Gilt is a viral-marketing phenomenon. During the hour after its weekday sales kick off, between noon and 1 p.m., the company claims, its site is visited by an average of roughly 100,000 shoppers.